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Verizon 3G vs. 4G LTE, by the numbers... speed test results

I tested the new LG VL600 USB 4G modem from Verizon, there's definitely a clear speed difference showing in the test numbers as well as in buffer speed when trying to watch streamed content. I tested both in the office and at home because there are pretty substantial differences in the 3G service between different locations. At the office, VZW's 3G can be painfully slow to the point of not even being able to stay connected. It's not a signal issue, I have 3-4+ bars at the office, it's a network congestion issue. At home it works fine (I live in a pretty dense residential area, but I also can literally see the Verizon antennas in the building across the street from me so that helps I think). As of now, the 4G network works dramatically better in the downtown area as compared to 3G. I would expect this to change probably as more users roll onto the 4G, unfortunately.

On average the 3G in Downtown loop was much slower and 4G was much closer to the max (graphic of tests attached below).

Home (Lakeview, Chicago):<U>3G</U>Max TX: 918 kbpsMax RX: 2814 kbps

<U>4G</U>Max TX: 3742 kbpsMax RX: 7225 kbps

All tested on the same laptop (a Dell Latitude D630) in the same time frames. The 3G test card was a PC5750, operating in 3G EV-RevA.

Verizon currently has 2 choices on the 4G USB modem front, one by LG and one by Pantech. If anyone uses a Cradlepoint router, the LG VL600 is not supported but the Pantech UML290 model does work in them with a firmware upgrade. By the same token, the LG 4G model is PC only, not Mac at this time, but the Pantech will work on Mac but you need to manually input the connection info (http://tinyurl.com/33k2cpq). So perhaps the Pantech is the better choice. All specs pretty much look identical.

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